Tempest brews over coffee perks - IAN BAILEY

VANCOUVER — — The B.C. government is defending Starbucks treats for exceptional civil servants that ended up costing $51,452 in the last fiscal year, according to an NDP review of government credit-card billings.

“Starbucks is one of the very popular staff appreciation awards we give out,” Finance Minister Carole Taylor said Tuesday, noting public service managers are entitled to give outstanding workers $100 in gift certificates each year.

“Starbucks is a very easy thing to give someone in recognition of the work they have done, so there is quite a bit of that,” she said.

Ms. Taylor linked the awards, which range beyond Starbucks gift certificates to vouchers for bookstores and elsewhere, to a continuing drive by the Liberal government to recruit more civil servants and improve morale.
These gift certificates come about when somebody does something above and beyond the call,” she said. “I think it is a positive way to say thank you for doing something extra. These appreciation awards aren't for doing your regular job. They're for doing something above and beyond the call.”

She added: “It's the idea we have got to defend. It's a good thing to do.”

Although the Starbucks cost is minor for a government that spends billions of dollars a year, the NDP spokesman on the issue said the idea is ridiculous. He is also calling for tougher controls over government-issued credit cards. The opposition came up with the Starbucks figure while poring over credit-card expense records.

“I find it a little strange that [civil servants] would be rewarded with caffeine,” said MLA Guy Gentner, the critic for Crown corporations and citizens' services. “I would have thought working in the civil service was a reward in itself.”

Questions about the 18-year-old staff-appreciation program, launched during the decade in which the NDP last governed B.C., have recently been raised as Mr. Gentner, the member for North Delta, has found receipts for spa treatments and other perks while reviewing $60-million in governmental credit-card billings.

“The NDP brought the program in and I think it's a good program,” Ms. Taylor said, chuckling.

The government has explained away NDP-flagged expenses on credit cards as reasonable expenses. Billings for a sex-toys store raised by Mr. Gentner in the legislature turned out to have been made by a stolen card.

Last week, the Finance Ministry even released a pre-emptive list, poring over expenses to flag those that might look odd. For example, a $22.56 expense from a company called Bosom Buddies Canada by officials of the Public Safety Ministry turned out to be 10 nursing bras for female inmates at a corrections centre.

Many expenses have been linked to staff-appreciation efforts. Mr. Gentner said he thought the program inappropriate despite its NDP roots.

“I am not an apologist for what had happened before,” he said. “It gives me a bad taste in my mouth. It's an arbitrary system. I don't know how you merit good behaviour with vats of coffee.”

Starbucks, he said, seems extravagant.

“My office has a coffee machine – small, little a Black and Decker you pick up at Costco,” he said, noting his staff are welcome to buy Starbucks at an outlet across the street from his constituency office. “I'll go and get Nabob grounds and brew coffee for staff, free of cost. I don't have to run an expense account for Starbucks.”

Mr. Gentner also said he was skeptical about Ms. Taylor's suggestion the Starbucks expenses were linked to staff-appreciation efforts because many line-item Starbucks costs he found were in amounts of less than $2, suggesting they were for individual drinks.

“I have a hard time believing a $1.75 entry is a staff-appreciation award,” he said.

He called for tighter controls over the use of cards, noting some public servants have told him existing efforts to monitor cards are “somewhat of a joke.”

Ms. Taylor said she was satisfied with existing controls, though she welcomed anyone, including the NDP, raising concerns to help maintain vigilance.

“We all have to keep our eyes on issues like this to make sure everything is being done properly and I welcome any set of eyes that look at them. If they found, in their research, something that looked unusual, I'd like to know about it and we can check it out.”